I said I had made my complaint. I made it through what I assumed would be the most efficient method - via the email address of the complaints manager on the trust's website.
They promise an acknowledgement within two working days.
Not having had a response today (and in light of past experience) I phoned to find out progress.
Only to find that the email address is wrong as the previous complaints manager has moved departments; complaints now need to be addressed to someone completely different.
Had they received my complaint? No.
How long had the address been wrong? About two months.
Were they aware the address was wrong? Yes.
Could they get hold of my initial complaint? No - I would have to resend it.
Argh.
Oh, and today was a very difficult day at work in terms of ICT "support".
I'm a rambling mass of inconsistencies, some hidden and some all too apparent. A "messy human", wishing to be visible and yet invisible, cherishing my differences but longing to fit in.
Blogs I read
- A Fortunate Man
- A Long Walk to Forever
- Awareness
- Dare to Dream
- Fighting the Urge
- Frolicking Through Llife
- Good in parts
- I'm a Medical Student...
- Lake Cocytus
- Mandy
- Marcella
- Medicines, Animals and a Dream
- Mental nurse
- Mouse
- Nearly time
- Neenaw
- One Pedestrian Away
- Pip
- Pole to Polar
- Police Inspector Blog
- Rainbow Dreams
- Random Acts of Reality
- Rufus May
- Schizophrenia - a Carer's Story
- Seratonin
- The fight for Mrs Carr
- The muddled marketplace
- There and Back
- Traumaqueen
- Useless CPN
12 comments:
Does one laugh, or cry?
God Bless them.
Prayers and virtual hugs flying your way tonight
Me? I cry. Lots.
Thanks for the hugs and prayers - I am surely in need of them tonight.
i would suggest a separate formal letter of complaint to the chief executive aimply about the email address issue and if there is not an adequate and acceptable response within 7 days a letter to the health service ombudsman.
but thats just my lawyer head talking.
of course there's always the 'letting it slip to the local evening paper' alternative whihc usually has quite remarkable results.
I;m glad you were able to persist sufficienlty to find out what was happening. i'd be interested to know if other complaints were lost in the psat 2 months, and if the same additional stress was caused to other people who by definition were already stressed enough to be complaining.
anyway, huge hugs from here. i'm sorry today has been so hard in so mnay ways, but you are quite remarkable and very much loved
xC
Thank you, Caroline.
I hadn't thought about making a direct complaint about the email address issue to the Chief exec - from my previous complaint I do have mis email address so may well do that. I do not have the email address of the new complaints officer - she promised to email me tonight to give me it, but has not done so. So my existing previous complaint may go direct to the Chief Exec too. I do like the ide a of leaking to the papers - but suspect mental health services are not high on their radar.
I'd be interested to know if other complaints were lost too - but the record on providing such specific records is not good.
I'm finding it very hard to keep fighting such a resistant system, and the balance between my need to make my views heard and the need to protect my own mental health is a hard one to find. Feeling fragile tonight.
oh my the words I'm thinking aren't printable... I'm gobsmacked...
so I'm pleased Caroline is offering good advice - be extra gentle with yourself this weekend, take care and look after you...
hugs and love
Katie,x
Thank you Katie.
I've followed Caroline's advice - will wait and see what (if anything) happens. Have also sent a brief email to the local paper - not sure if anything will come of it. Feeling pretty discouraged at the moment.
I'm afraid this is all totally unsurprising. Our Trust continued to advertise the number of their Eating Disorders "Helpline" for months after the service had moved and had not been allocated a phone number. This was the subject of my first complaint. Although the reply I eventually got was useless I found out later that the issue had been raised among the wider community and at least my complaint (and that of the other people who I'm sure must have complained at this ridiculous situation) had been heard.
Well done for raising the matter with the paper - you may be surprised at the interest.
As a long term solution to some of your problems at work, even if this would make your relationship with the mental health "services" worse, have you thought of suggesting to the technician that she looks for a job in IT support at the Trust? They obviously are as in dire need of trained staff as ours are, and the fact that she has no people skills won't matter as she'll have plenty of company.
Marcella, I love the suggestion for my technician. Given the fact that she is currently not speaking to me, making such a suggestion could be difficult, but is surely is tempting!
Sorry to hear about your experiences. Is there a need to come up with a new meaning for the CMHT tag - maybe "crap management, hopeless team" might be an option?
Oh for heaven's sake! Caroline, they are just unbelievable (except, sadly, that too many others seem to find it all too believable)
So sorry you've had this lot to add to the weight you are carrying.
Love and hugs heading your way, and any number of prayers ascending for you too. xx
wow!
I would like to see Michael Palin and John Cleese act this scenario out. It truly is from the theatre of the absurd. Bring on Monty Python.
I like Katie's word....gobsmacked....I am too.
Thanks Kathryn.
I don't know what to believe any more. Certainly not the claims on their website, which include:
there is commitment at all levels towards ensuring that the clinical and care needs of our patients and service users are what we do best.
I wish!
You know, Dana, it's really sad but, despite my comments on this blog, part of me just accepts that this is the way it is, this is normal, this is acceptable. Only through all of the reactions to this blog am I feeling that I am justified in complaining, that really none of this is my fault, it is a crappy system, top to bottom, with just a few exceptions (such as D, the psychologist, and S, my CPN). I'm starting to realise how much the system has contributed to my illness, through its very structures. Sadly, it all makes the attitude of people like M more understandable - a poor system is likely, I suspect, to employ poor workers, and a system which clearly does not value the individuals it is meant to support will employ individuals who feel the same.
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